Chapter 5

1 Come now, you rich! Weep and cry aloud over the miseries that are coming on you.⁠ 2 Your riches have rotted and your clothing has become moth-eaten.⁠ 3 Your gold and silver have rusted and their rust will be a witness against you.⁠ It will consume your flesh like fire.⁠ It is in the last days that you have hoarded treasure! 4 Look, the pay you have held back from the workers who mowed your fields cries out against you, and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.⁠ 5 You have lived indulgently and luxuriously on the earth. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.⁠ 6 You have condemned and murdered the righteous person, although he does not resist you. 7 So be patient, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s return. Think of how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the ground and is patient for it until it receives the early and late rains. 8 You also be patient and strengthen your hearts, for the Lord’s return is near. 9 Do not grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be judged.⁠ See, the judge stands before the gates! 10 As an example of suffering and patience, brothers and sisters, take the prophets who spoke in the Lord’s name. 11 Think of how we regard as blessed those who have endured. You have heard of Job’s endurance and you have seen the Lord’s purpose, that the Lord is full of compassion and mercy. 12 And above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath. But let your “Yes” be yes and your “No” be no, so that you may not fall into judgment.⁠ 13 Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone in good spirits? He should sing praises. 14 Is anyone among you ill? He should summon the elders of the church, and they should pray for him and anoint him with olive oil in the name of the Lord.⁠ 15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up—and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 So confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great effectiveness.⁠ 17 Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain and there was no rain on the land for three years and six months!⁠ 18 Then he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the land sprouted with a harvest. 19 My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back,⁠ 20 he should know that the one who turns a sinner back from his wandering path will save that person’s soul from death⁠ and will cover a multitude of sins.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Psalm 49:16 and James 5:1

Hebrew Bible · New Testament

Summary

James 5 alludes to Psalm 49 as part of its condemnation of wealth, echoing the psalm’s reminder that riches cannot be taken beyond death. Both urge people not to trust in possessions, portraying them as ultimately corrupting.

Passages

Psalm 49:16

Hebrew Bible

16 Do not be afraid when a man becomes rich and his wealth multiplies. 17 For he will take nothing with him when he dies; his wealth will not follow him down into the grave. 18 He pronounces this blessing on himself while he is alive: “May men praise you, for you have done well.” 19 But he will join his ancestors; they will never again see the light of day. 20 Wealthy people do not understand; they are like animals that perish.

600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Psalms

James 5:1

New Testament

1 Come now, you rich! Weep and cry aloud over the miseries that are coming on you. 2 Your riches have rotted and your clothing has become moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver have rusted and their rust will be a witness against you. It will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have hoarded treasure! 4 Look, the pay you have held back from the workers who mowed your fields cries out against you, and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. 5 You have lived indulgently and luxuriously on the earth. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.

80–90 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in James

References

"... Wright observes some ways in which Luke’s parable illustrates motifs from certain Jewish wisdom texts, but his assertion that the parable merely echoes the wisdom tradition does not take into account the many ways in which Luke 12:16–20 reconfigures sapiential motifs. Wright conveys, moreover, little sense of the diversity within wisdom texts. He characterizes the “wisdom tradition” as that which extolled “common-sense instruction as something God-given and portrayed obedience as not only right but also the best and safest course of action.” This description applies to some wisdom texts, but certainly not all. It is more helpful—and more of an accurate reflection of the dynamic dialogue between such texts—to speak of wisdom traditions rather than a single, static tradition. Underlying my book’s thesis is a claim that wisdom texts whose focus is the interplay of death and possessions, far from representing a monolithic voice, comprise a diverse and contested conversation. Although François Bovon follows Jülicher and others in describing the parable as “une histoire exemplaire,” he acknowledges the importance of wisdom parallels and identifies specific aspects of the parable as having their “equivalent” in Hebrew and Jewish wisdom. He cites several such parallels to show that Luke 12:15 and 16–21 fit into Israel’s “wisdom tradition.” (These include Psalm 49:7, 11, 17–20; Sirach 11:18–19; Testament of Judah 18–19; 1 Enoch 94:6–11; 97:8–10; James 5:1–6. He also refers to the beatitude and woe in Luke 6:20, 24 and “all the Lucan texts on riches.”) ..."

Matthew S. Rindge, Jesus' Parable of the Rich Fool: Luke 12:13–34 among Ancient Conversations on Death and Possessions, ECL 6 (Atlanta: SBL, 2011), 31–32.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

James5 chapters

Compare Psalm 49:16 and James 5:1

Summary

Passages

Psalm 49:16

James 5:1

References

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